If you feel like your get-up-and-go got up and went when you hit 40 or 50, don’t assume your symptoms are simple side effects of aging, Horn says.

Sure, there are some issues, like knee pain, you can chalk up to wear and tear, but “most have nothing to do with getting older and should be checked out,” she says. “I don’t want anyone to assume there are symptoms that automatically go along with aging.”

2009 Medical Breakthroughs

Researchers are starting to look at risk factors for age-related conditions among different ethnic groups, according to Horn, who says the medical community is moving toward tailored therapy based on ethnicity. “That’s the way all medicine should be. It’s not one size fits all.”

African-American women with pregnancy-induced high blood pressure tend to have lower levels of folic acid and higher levels of the amino acid that causes atherosclerosis. They’re also three times more likely than non-black women to develop an aggressive form of breast cancer known as a triple-negative tumor, according to Breast Cancer Research, April 2009.

Meanwhile, an analysis of more than 387,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2004 by a researcher at the National Cancer Institute and reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute showed that black women under age 40 have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than white women in the same age group. While their risk drops with age, white women’s risk rises: The data showed that white women 40 and older are more likely than black women to develop the disease.

Horn’s Rx for Women

Get screenings.Get a mammogram every year after age 40. If your mom had breast cancer as a young woman, you need to start younger.

Schedule a colonoscopy at 50. If you have a family history of colon cancer, schedule one 10 years earlier than the age at which your relative developed the disease. (For example, if your father developed colon cancer when he was 48, schedule your first colonoscopy when you’re 38.)

You also need a pelvic exam every year. Your risk for cancers of the reproductive tract increases as you age, so don’t assume your need for yearly gynecological exams ends when you’ve had your last child.

Tell the truth. Talk to your doc about any family health problems — from heart disease to diabetes to breast cancer to vague things like "my mother had some sort of liver problem." You might benefit from additional screening tests.

“Some women are embarrassed to talk about things like urinary incontinence,” Horn explains. “They think it’s a natural factor of aging, but in most cases it can be fixed without surgery.” Some women can correct or improve the problem with exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor, bladder training or estrogen taken orally or applied vaginally.

Painful sex due to dryness is another issue that middle-aged women are don't usually mention, but it, too, can be remedied with lubricant, estrogen creams, or treatment of a possible underlying cause such as frequent yeast infections.

Know your body.If you’ve had regular headaches for years and suddenly they become worse or more frequent, pay attention. Same goes for belly pain and shortness of breath.